Outtakes

Keri Russell's Bare Essentials

In the fall of 1999, Keri Russell made bizarre-television history when, as the eponymous college student of the WB series Felicity, she received an unfortunate on-screen haircut. Rather than rely on Hollywood trickery, Russell allowed her below-the-shoulder ringlets to be pruned into a boyish do for the show's second season. Talk about a buzz cut: ratings declined, a media circus ensued, and the WB's entertainment president was quoted as saying, "Nobody is cutting their hair again on our network." Russell emerged from this baptism of fire with her humor intact, and seven years later she is laughing about another close shave, again courtesy of J. J. Abrams, the co-creator of Felicity who has now directed Russell in Mission: Impossible III. Russell (also a new face for CoverGirl) plays a beautiful but lethal student of Tom Cruise's Impossible Misson Force stud, Ethan Hunt. In preparation for one pyrotechnic chase scene, she says, her shoulder-length tresses were sprayed with flame "retardant," and she was told, "If your hair catches on fire, don't let go of the van. You'll fall off." Her reaction: "Holy shit!" Herewith: hot outtakes from Russell's May 2006 Vanity Fair photo shoot—featuring her lovely locks, if little else.